Podagogy

Up to this point my reviews have focused on the hardware I use for podcasting or audio recording. This review takes a look at a software utility from Techsmith called Jing. Many PC (and Mac) users know Techsmith for their excellent products Camtasia Studio and Snagit; two of the best media products available for screencasting and screen capture, and available with special pricing for educators.

Jing is something of an experimental product for Techsmith, and the admit as much by inviting the online community at large to use and evaluate Jing. Techsmith also gives you a free account on Screencast.com as an option for sharing your screencasts.

Jing is available as a free download for both PCs and Macs. It’s drop dead easy to use, and it saves all screencasts as .swf files – very compact. Is it better than Snapz Pro X? or Screenflow? Maybe, maybe not. On the other hand, it does allow one to quickly capture a screen recording with little or no planning, and produces small file sizes that are easily shared or transmitted.

The 2 minute video below provides a cursory look at the screen recording capability of Jing.

The Jessica Hupp of TravelHacker recently put up a list of links titled “Turn Your iPod Into Anything (75+ Tutorials)”. I haven’t viewed all the tutorials yet, but the list contains some amazingly creative ideas for modifying an iPod to do just about anything.

Click here to check it out.